Bumper sunspot crop forecast for next solar cycle

[Celebration]

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8814

The next 11-year sunspot cycle will be late but strong according to a new computer prediction. The model used was virtually spot on when applied retrospectively to "forecast" the last eight solar cycles.

"We predict the next cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the last cycle," says the model's creator, Mausumi Dikpati, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research's High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, US.

The Sun is currently near its minimum activity, at the tail end of a solar cycle, numbered 23. "Onset of the next cycle will be delayed by six to 12 months, to late 2007 or early 2008," Dikpati says. She expects the next peak to hit in 2012.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. OH, no! 2012! There's that number again!

[Pharaoh]

3. Yes!

The end of the Mayan calendar.....

[LastDemocratInSC]

4. Great! The six meter fishing will be good again.

It's good news for amateur radio operators. The six-meter band, between 50 and 54 megahertz, is heavily (or heavenly, in this case) influenced by solar activity, particularly at periods of maxiumum solar activity.

In the previous solar maximum period I went backpacking several times in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with a 2 watt 6-meter SSB radio and worked stations as far west as Idaho. Woo-hoo!

I had a 10 inch x 16 inch steel cookie sheet under the radio (an ancient Yaesu portable with a 30 inch whip antenna) as a ground plane. With the cookie sheet, Idaho and west could be heard and worked. Without the cookie sheet, not much beyond Missouri.

That might not sound like fun to many, but to we radio nuts, it's heaven on Earth.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. I'm thinking of buying one of those.

Is there any easy, cheap one for amateurs? What kind of signals can I expect to hear?

[Mr.Green93]

2. If we don't stop Global Warming Now

We could all be cooked by this next sun cycle.